21/10/2024 - Adam Elliott’s comic claymation feature has won the Best Film Award, whilst Laura Carreira’s debut added the Sutherland Award for the best debut to its array of recent prizes

On Falling lead actress Joana Santos (left) and director Laura Carreira at the festival (© BFI London Film Festival)

It was a time to celebrate snails as this year’s BFI London Film Festival came to a close. In artistic director Kristy Matheson’s second edition at the helm of the festival, which saw the red carpets amassed with talent after last year’s actors’ strikes, and sell-outs at the majority of the public screenings, Adam Elliott’s Memoir of a Snail was a popular winner of the Best Film Award in the Official Competition. The claymation tragicomedy, following the lives of two dysfunctional, estranged siblings, and based on an original screenplay by Elliott, first premiered at Annecy, where it was launched by French sales agent Charades and was awarded the Crystal for Best Feature (see the news).

The jury, composed of essay filmmaker Alexandre O Philippe, journalist Manori Ravindran and director Reinaldo Marcus Green, said the following in a statement: “Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir of a Snail tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can. [We’re] delighted to recognise an animated film alongside its live-action peers.” Regarding that last comment, it is in fact the first animated feature to win BFI London’s top award, after the Official Competition section was first established in 2009.

Elliott responded by saying, “We could never have imagined, when we started making our little blobby film eight years ago, how audiences around the world would connect and engage with our character Grace Pudel. This film was made by so many wonderful artists who toiled very long days, months and years to bring our blobs of clay to life. This award is for them.”

After taking home the Best Director Award from San Sebastián (see the news), Laura Carreira was granted the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition (perhaps the festival’s most prestigious prize, given its long history and illustrious past winners) for her debut, On Falling [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Carreira
film profile], launching what industry figures expect to be a long career. The movie follows a young Portuguese migrant to Scotland, played by Joana Santos, in an Amazon-like procurement centre as she struggles to adapt, and the jury led by British filmmaker Dionne Edwards hailed it as a “richly layered portrait of a world governed by corporate-profit motives, as seen through the story of an immigrant woman whose alienation we feel deeply, told with masterful cinematic precision and understated, lived-in performances”.

In her own statement, Carreira said that she was “so honoured to receive the Sutherland Award for On Falling and for our film to join the long list of winners, which includes some of my favourite movies and most important cinema reference points. I want to extend my thanks to the jury and everyone involved in this amazing festival.”

Mother Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Cécile Emberton and Alys Tomlinson continued its success on the circuit by scooping the Grierson Award in the Official Documentary Competition. Whilst a UK production, it follows a Belarusian nun as she reckons with her troubled past and sets off towards liberation, all shot stylishly in black and white.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Best Film Award in the Official Competition
Memoir of a Snail - Adam Elliott (Australia)
Special Mention
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+see also:
film review
interview: Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy
film profile] - Rungano Nyoni (UK/Zambia/Ireland)

Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition
On Falling [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Carreira
film profile] - Laura Carreira (UK/Portugal)
Special Mention
Olivia & the Clouds - Tomás Pichardo Espaillat (Dominican Republic)

Grierson Award in the Documentary Competition
Mother Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson (UK)
Special Mention
The Shadow Scholars [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Eloise King (UK)

Short Film Award in the Short Film Competition
Vibrations from Gaza - Rehab Nazzal (Palestine)
Special Mention
Dragfox - Lisa Ott (UK)